Martine Syms

Martine Syms (b. 1988, Los Angeles (CA)) obtained a MFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (NY) (2017) and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (IL) (2007). Syms has earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humour and social commentary. Using a combination of video, installation and performance, often interwoven with explorations into technique and narrative, Syms examines representations of blackness and its relationship to vernacular, feminist thought, and radical traditions. Syms’s research-based practice frequently references and incorporates theoretical models concerning performed or imposed identities, the power of the gesture, and embedded assumptions concerning gender and racial inequalities. ...

Sadie Coles HQ is a London-based contemporary art gallery representing around fifty international artists. The gallery opened in 1997, with an inaugural exhibition of new paintings by American painter John Currin presented in parallel with an offsite show by British artist Sarah Lucas, The Law, at St John Street. This pairing established the international breadth of the gallery's programme, which has since expanded over the past two decades. Since its inception, Sadie Coles HQ has operated from a variety of spaces; most recently mounting offsite shows in Los Angeles and Mayfair in 2020 with a significant new video installation by Martine Syms. In September 2013, Sadie Coles HQ opened its largest space at 62 Kingly Street in Soho, as well as a second space at 1 Davies Street in Mayfair designed by 6a Architects in 2015, and a third space at 8 Bury Street in St James’s in April 2021. ...